Konohamaru's Date
by HHarlequin
Summary: Konohamaru is on a special mission given to him by Hanabi; take her out on a date.  But is something this simple really so?
1. Chapter 1

In the village of the hidden leaf where ninja resided there was a young boy named Konohamaru Sarutobi. He was an energetic, clever boy who wanted nothing more than to be the best ninja his village had ever seen and follow in the footsteps of those he idolized. A tall order indeed for such a young man, for all the shinobi that inspired him were great men indeed. His grandfather had been the leader of their village and carried the title "Fire Shadow" or Hokage. His Uncle Asuma Sarutobi had been a Jonin Ninja, one of the highest ranks a shinobi could attain and was well respected by many of the villagers. Most of all his inspiration to better himself, a young man by the name of Naruto Uzumaki was clearly a tall order to surpass. In Naruto's young age he'd already mastered several of the amazing skills and techniques a ninja could learn and a power that could rival even a great ninja like his Grandfather or his Uncle. Despite all this for some reason that escaped Konohamaru his idol Naruto shared the same rank of Genin Ninja, that of just a graduate from their academy for shinobi. But it didn't seem to matter, least of all to Naruto himself. Which taught Konohamaru something important in that rank did not mean as much as personal accomplishment. He had also learned from his personal teacher or sensei Ebisu that all tasks big and small helped an individual climb that ladder of accomplishments to his primary goal. Still why did he have to take such baby steps towards that route?

"So I take it the mission to clean the crop fields was successful?" The question wasn't posed to Konohamaru directly but rather to his sensei and squad leader Ebisu from the current Hokage of their village. She was considered one of three legendary great ninja from nearly thirty years ago, which by the list of the accomplishments of those three at their prime and Konohamaru's current age put her at somewhere over fifty years old. Still the Hokage Tsunade looked like she was in her mid-twenties at the oldest and a very beautiful woman at that. He'd heard from Naruto that she used some sort of ninja-technique to keep herself young. When Konohamaru asked how she did it Naruto had said she sucked the youth out of kids like him and drained it into her own body, leaving them petrified mummies! He didn't believe it of course, crazy ghost stories. Still when her eyes fell on him he straightened up quickly and stood with the rest of his squad at attention.

"Everything went perfectly Lord Hokage." Ebisu adjusted his trademark sunglasses he always wore along with his bandanna around his head. For a guy that was so straight-laced and well educated Konohamaru always wondered why he dressed like some kind of hoodlum. "We cleaned the farm fields an hour earlier than expected and the farmers have been notified they can begin sowing their harvest whenever they are ready."

"Good, very good. Excellent work again Team Ebisu." Pulling out her big red rubber stamp Lady Tsunade marked the requested task as completed and passed it off to be filed. Konohamaru had witnessed this act countless times by his grandfather and wondered how much of the job of Hokage involved paper work and less exciting things like fighting evil villains. Although he was already painfully aware of how terrible such battles were, having lost both his grandfather and his Uncle Asuma to said other enemy ninja in battles. Konohamaru didn't want to relive any pain like that ever again, and it was a driving force behind his desire to become stronger as a ninja. Becoming a little lost in thought with his family he was nudged by one of his team mates when they were all called up to the counter. The other shinobi next to the Hokage were filing away their paperwork and distributing their payment for the accomplished mission. "I'll be sure to have another assignment set up for you tomorrow, your all dismissed."

"Yes, Lord Hokage." They all bowed in respect and Konohamaru noticed Ebisu taking a peek down the front of Lady Tsunade's shirt. She didn't seem to notice or if she did she didn't care. It was her own fault really, she had to be leaving it open like that on purpose and to be fair his closet pervert of a teacher wasn't the only man Konohamaru had seen checking out the Hokage before. He couldn't deny himself that she was pretty and rather sexy, but she was over fifty! Konohamaru was thirteen years old and at that age where he was really starting to notice the pretty girls apart from just the regular ones. But I mean... eternal youth technique or not that age difference makes it a little weird.

After collecting their payment and walking out of the briefing room Konohamaru pocketed his money and was lost in thought again. Just like before he was nudged by his team mate who looked a little concerned at him. "You okay Konohamaru? It's not like you to be so quiet." His friend Moegi smiled trying to perk up his attitude. She was one of his closest friends along with their glasses wearing (and undeniably nerdy) buddy Udon. The trio had been together for years now and they felt it was quite lucky that they all managed to get put on the same team when they graduated the academy. Moegi was a cheerful girl that always wore her hair in two pig tails that tied at the ends, making them rise in the air with the way her headband pushed them up. Her face was always rosy pink with the abundance of blush she wore on her cheeks. His buddy Udon was almost the opposite, looking mopey and tired all the time and his bowl cut hair was parted down the middle. Konohamaru flared the team up a bit in his own opinion, what with his spiky brown hair similar to his uncle and undeniably cool green scarf! (Which was way longer than any scarf should be, trailing a good four feet behind him.)

"Yeah I'm okay it's just... " Konohamaru thought his words out carefully. "I wish we could go on a more important mission you know. I mean doing these chores and little missions I know is important for the village, but it gets to be a drag." The boy stated not really able to hide his disappointment. Udon didn't seem to share the sentiment.

"It's better than a dangerous mission isn't it? I don't think I'm ready for anything that's going to put us outside the village." Udon complained aloud which earned him disapproving looks from both his team mates. Konohamaru was about to talk some courage into his friend but Moegi beat him to it.

"Oh we're tougher than that! Konohamaru is right, I think we should get some better missions. Hey Ebisu-sensei, why don't we request something a little tougher next time? I bet we can handle it." Their squad leader who had been leading the pack up until this point stopped and took an unnecessary pose in the hallway, which got the team some glances from passer-bys that they didn't want to receive.

"Heh, I knew it was only a matter of time before this came up again." He spoke confidently and turned to his subordinates. "So you all feel your ready to face the dangers of the outside world and risk your lives for this village and it's people?" Konohamaru and Moegi nodded together in unison, while Udon managed to keep the beat with them and shook his head. "Why is it your asking this now, hm? Are you kids after fame? Recognition? Do you want to get yourselves some extra money from the harder missions?" Moegi stopped, honestly she'd just been going along with Konohamaru's momentum and didn't consider as to why they'd want something harder than the day to day. Udon clearly didn't but the two both looked to their friend for inspiration as to what to answer. Konohamaru was as confident as his teacher in his response.

"For ourselves." He smiled confidently. "Ebisu-sensei, how are we ever going to get any self improvement if we get stuck in a rut. I'm ready for the next step, I'm ready to push my limits! I've always gone along with the hard work and dedication and all that stuff but I need a challenge! Like.. I dunno! An escort mission, or to take out some bad guys, or stealing top secret plans from an enemy base or something!" As his imagination was running with the possibilities Moegi was getting more thrilled by the idea and Udon was visibly becoming worried with the chance that their teacher would go along with these suggestions. "Or heck I'll do a solo! I could run an infiltration mission and invade an enemy base or spy on someone or... stuff!" It was the best he could come up with. "I can do stuff!" Ebisu watched his little student go on his rant for a while and thought it over.

"Well... I suppose before you'll be ready for something like the Chunin exam for your promotions you'll need more experience. I'd rather supervise you three in a real dangerous mission before sending you into something on your own." The three looked excited for their own personal reasons as their teacher considered their future. Letting out a sigh he finally nodded. "I'll consider it." Konohamaru literally jumped for joy hearing those words, more than happy at the possibility of some real excitement. Ebisu wasn't going to let them go overboard though. "I said I'd consider it! I'll review the missions myself and see what the Hokage is willing to allow us to take. Will that be satisfactory?" Konohamaru nodded eagerly while Udon looked like he was going to pass out from the idea of a dangerous mission. "Okay you three are dismissed. I'll call you all when I have something ready for us." The three students thanked their teacher and headed out of the main building for the city to the bustling streets of their village.

"So where you planning on headed next?" Udon asked his friends when they hit the road. Konohamaru wasn't really sure where he wanted to go from here. They'd just got done with work but he was excited at the idea they may get something a bit thrilling on their next mission out. He was about to suggest maybe they should get something to eat with their new paychecks when the team was suddenly approached by a person they'd all only seen in passing before.

"Your Konohamaru Sarutobi, correct?" The question was as directly startling as the girl who was asking it. When he looked forward the first thing he noticed was the pure white eyes that were making contact with his own. The girl before him was Hanabi Hyuuga of the wealthy Hyuuga clan of the Leaf Village. Konohamaru and company had only seen her a few times as she was considered part of a high society crowd. This was the first time she'd spoken to any of them. She was dressed in all black, a plain training uniform and probably had come from doing just that. She was considered a prodigy amongst her family who were known for their fight style Gentle Fist, and their amazing powers to see through objects and long distances with those pale white eyes of theirs. At the moment it felt like she was looking right through him as they spoke. "Correct?"

"Oh um.. yeah yeah that's me!" He said a bit startled again. Hanabi brushed some of her long black hair aside from her face and looked him over, then at his team who seemed more than a little confused as to why she was even speaking with them. "Is there uh, something I can help you with?"

"Yes, I need you to come with me. Alone. It's important." Konohamaru blinked and looked back at his team mates who both shrugged, not really knowing what to make of all of this. She was so direct and impersonal it was hard to get an idea of what her intentions were. Still it was a request for help of some kind and Konohamaru was not the kind to deny someone in need. It was all kinds of shifty.

"Well I guess if it's important, okay I'll help you." Konohamaru smiled confidently as she nodded in agreement and lead him away from his companions. Moegi and Udon looked on as their friend was lead away by the pale eyed girl with the dark hair and Moegi wasn't pleased at all with this. She nudged Udon similar to how she did Konohamaru earlier to get his attention.

"So what do you think those two are talking about?" Udon blinked as he thought it over, not really sure what it could be but tried to hazard a guess.

"Ninjutsu techniques?" He shrugged as Moegi still seemed suspicious of the girl and her motives. "I mean what else would they talk about? They never spoke before right?"

"As far as I know." She said watching them as they walked off away from the crowd.

* * *

The next day proved to be similar to the last. Konohamaru and company got another basic, D-rank mission much to their disappointment. Ebisu had explained that the mission had already been assigned to them so there wasn't any way of avoiding it but he hadn't forgotten their request. He'd still find them a suitable mission for the three of them to attend. Till then they were stuck cleaning out trash from the river nearby the village. As the three of them waded through the water Konohamaru had felt this uneasy tension about himself and the source wasn't hard to spot. Moegi had been giving him a look ever since yesterday when Hanabi had pulled him aside. He wasn't really sure why but it was gnawing at him that she seemed so concerned about it. It wasn't until Ebisu had excused himself from the team to get a trash can for them to dispose of the waste in that she finally spoke up to him. "So... what exactly did Hanabi want with you yesterday?"

"Oh... you know. Just normal stuff." He tried to shrug it off and avoided making eye contact with her, but it didn't seem to dissuade her from the conversation.

"What's normal stuff exactly? You two talk like that often?" Udon had stopped what he was doing to listen in on his friends now, getting a bit worried as he could see there was a bit of Moegi's temper showing in her questions.

"No, we don't talk often. She just wanted me to help her out with something in private and I agreed." Moegi was still giving him a glare as she didn't fully believe him. Udon wanted to flag his friend down to warn him of the impending storm of angry girl heading his way but couldn't manage to get his attention without outing himself to their team mate. "No big deal."

"Hmmm. So what did she need? Was it a date?" She said it in a bit of a teasing manner and shockingly to both Moegi and Udon he didn't get riled up at all at the question. In fact Konohamaru responded very calmly and clearly with a bit of a smirk in his tone.

"Not exactly, she just needed me is all. Hurrrk!" Konohamaru gasped a bit for air as Moegi pulled on his scarf to get him to finally look up from the water they were all standing in.

"So she needed you huh! What for exactly then, if it's not a date exactly?" Both Udon and Konohamaru were looking startled at her hostile reaction now. Udon tried to get between them to calm his friends down.

"Moegi, what's gotten into you anyway?"

"Nothing! Nothing's wrong, everything's fine! Lets just get back to work!" She huffed and dropped his stupidly long scarf into the water, trudging away from the two boys to collect trash as far away from them as possible. The two boys gulped a bit in unison seeing how angry their female team mate could get and both silently agreed that girls can be very scary. When he was sure she was out of ear shot Udon whispered over to his friend.

"So what was it that Hanabi really wanted anyway?" Konohamaru looked bothered by the subject entirely but was able to only give a little bit of a clue.

"It was a special request, she asked me not to talk about it." Udon was confused by his friends remark but respected his decision to not share the information. After that point the day proceeded rather normally other than the mood that seemed to linger about Moegi due to Konohamaru's refusal to give up any more details. The trio broke apart after their report and payment like always but Konohamaru headed a different direction than normal. When questioned on it he confessed he had to see Naruto about something important as well. While this still got on Moegi's nerves it was more normal behavior than previously with Hanabi and she let it go without much fuss much to Konohamaru's relief.

When he was finally alone he made a bee-line straight for the ramen restaurant Ichiraku. It was already close to dinner and Konohamaru knew his target well enough to know where he'd be. Sure enough in a ten minute walk he'd spotted the blond haired boy in the orange jacket. Naruto was happily slurping down ramen from a bowl with little regard for the world around him. His face was smirking with the little whisker lines that faintly appeared on his cheeks and gave him a fox like smile when he closed his eyes. If there was one thing you could count on was that this guy would be seen eating ramen at every meal he got the chance to. Even though Naruto was only about three years older than himself Konohamaru looked up to him just as much as any of the adults and knew he could talk to him when he had problems. Walking into the restaurant he took a seat next to Naruto and waved. "Yo."

"Oh, hey Konohamaru!" Naruto smiled and clapped his little friend on the back. "What brings you here? Looking to get some dinner too? Great place for it."

"Well actually I had a question and um... I was hoping you could help me." Naruto blinked into a more serious expression and then turned to his little friend confidently.

"Heh, not a problem buddy. After all I always said I was here to help! So what is it? Got a technique you need me to assist you with or something?" Naruto was overly energetic like always and Konohamaru felt a little embarrassed all of a sudden now that the attention was drawn to him.

"Well uh.. it's not like that. It's more like..." He wasn't really sure what to say and Naruto tried to wait patiently. "Naruto, have you ever been on a date?" Naruto looked startled at the question and it seemed to actually take him a moment to think of the answer.

"Well uh... sure! I mean I've spent time with girls before and all." Naruto gave an encouraging laugh but Konohamaru wasn't so sure. "So you got a date Konohamaru?"

"Yeah actually... it's with Hanabi Hyuuga." The name caught Naruto's attention and it shouldn't have been any surprise. Hanabi was the younger sister of Hinata Hyuuga, who for years now everyone was aware had feelings for Naruto. Everyone except Naruto himself that is. He was a great guy but subtle things like that were never his strong suit. As of recently though Hinata had confessed her feelings for him during a life and death battle that very nearly resulted in her own demise. She had thankfully been saved in the end but as far as he was aware the two hadn't pursued their relationship further. Naruto was actively focused on personal goals involving a lot of missions for the village and Hinata was still too shy to pursue her goals. "We're supposed to go out but I've never done anything like a date before. I was hoping you could give me some advice." Naruto seemed to ponder the issue seriously for a moment.

"What's the best advice to give for a situation like this?"

"A situation like what?" Konohamaru and Naruto both shot a glance upward when the new voice kicked in. Naruto's team mate Sai had somehow snuck onto one of the bar stools of the ramen stand and was smiling at them in that weird, plastered on grin he always wore. Sai always gave Konohamaru an uneasy feeling but Naruto vouched for him as being a good guy so he trusted him. Although Sai always acted like he was practically new to life. Naruto once explained that Sai went through a very difficult training as a child and never made any friends so you had to treat him with understanding. Regardless Konohamaru still found him kind of uncomfortable.

"Oh hey Sai." Naruto greeted him with a nod. "Konohamaru here got himself a date with a lady, so I was giving him some pointers on how to handle himself." Naruto was speaking pretty confidently in front of Sai despite the fact he hadn't actually taught him anything yet. "Got any advice for him?" Sai seemed to ponder this question very seriously as if it were a very important matter. When he was satisfied with his thoughts he looked down at Konohamaru with that same plastered smile.

"Well I did read a book on relationships between men and women recently. Perhaps I can impart some of this advice to you." Naruto seemed confident in this and Konohamaru's opinion was beginning to turn around. He'd never even heard Naruto mention reading a book before, this dude was gaining education on his own free time. They both turned their attention now more interested than Sai thought they would be. "Well for starters the simple rule of politeness is one to follow. Be sure to treat your date with respect and courtesy." Both boys nodded in unison with his statement. "Also try to carry out equal parts of a conversation on your date. You shouldn't talk over a lady while she's speaking and be prepared for answers and questions to keep your conversation flowing." He sounded so confident in these statements. Maybe Sai was a lot more personal than Konohamaru gave him credit for. "Finally it's best to provide a small gift to your date at the beginning. Something that she'll enjoy but not so personal or expensive that she'll feel threatened by your advances." Naruto and Konohamaru nodded in unison to his statements, seeming satisfied with the information given.

"Dang Sai, your pretty well informed on this stuff. If I hadn't spent so many years training with that perverted sage then maybe I'd have told him to turn to you for advice before me." Naruto was speaking cocky again despite the fact that Sai didn't actually tell him anything. Regardless Konohamaru politely thanked Sai for the advice he was willing to give.

"Oh and I almost forgot." Both boys looked forward as Sai was preparing to share more information. "Be sure not to attempt to touch their breasts or vagina on the first date. This is considered rather rude and can often lead to the end of a date before it begins." His words seemed to hang in the air as everyone around them was more than a little shocked at this particular gem of wisdom. Had Konohamaru looked behind him he would have seen that Naruto's jaw was hanging almost low enough to hit the floor. At the moment he was a little confused but still wanted to thank the boy for his help.

"Um... well... thank you... for everything." He stated awkwardly.

"Oh, I should go into more detail too..." Before Sai could say anymore the world went silent as Naruto's hands came closing down over top of Konohamaru's ears.

"Sai what the hell are you telling him!" Sai looked genuinely confused by Naruto's reaction.

"Well we can't just tell him what to do, that would be silly. It's important to warn him of the dangers of what not to do on a date as well." His face returned to his smile with that explanation but Naruto was far from satisfied, keeping his hold on Konohamaru's head so he couldn't hear.

"You can't just say stuff like that to a kid! I mean.. it's not like that's the kind of thing he has to worry about at his age anyway!" Sai had a confused expression again at Naruto's statement.

"You mean they allow them to do that at his age? I would have thought that would have been a bigger concern while they were younger." Naruto look exhausted with trying to explain this.

"No! What I mean is... you know! Like that's more something people our age worry about than kids his age."

"So you have a problem with touching a woman's breasts and vagina?"

"Will you stop saying that out loud! No I don't have a problem with it! I mean... it's not like I don't do it... you know... if they'd let me... but... Arggh! This is so frustrating!"

"If it's such a big deal why doesn't Naruto just come with me?" The two boys looked over as Konohamaru was currently sitting on the opposite side of Naruto, eating ramen calmly. When Naruto looked down he'd seen that Konohamaru had replaced his head in Naruto's hands with a log that had a scarf wrapped around it like his own. "I mean if he chaperons the date then there's no worry about me doing anything wrong, is there?" Naruto was looking back and forth between the boy and the piece of wood while Sai was considering this statement.

"That does sound like a good suggestion. And as you said Naruto you can let him know when it's appropriate to touch and not to, as that seems to be a concern." Naruto looked like he was going to break the log in his hands with the comments Sai kept dropping, then gave a sigh and set it on the bar stool between himself and Sai.

"I dunno, that's kind of old fashioned and lame. I mean do you really want me trailing around behind you the whole time on your date? Do you think she'd really like that?" Konohamaru considered Naruto's question for a moment then came back with another suggestion.

"Okay then, how about a double date! It would be okay if you were going on a date with a girl too along side us right?" Naruto thought this over too for a moment not seeming very convinced by the suggestion.

"I dunno... I mean, who would my date be? I don't think Sakura will go for the idea."

"Just leave that part to me, I'll be sure to get a girl to come along for you." Naruto and Sai exchanged a glance then looked back at Konohamaru with little confidence. "Trust me, I'll set you up with a hottie!"


	2. Chapter 2

Naruto wasn't exactly the go to guy when it came to the dating scene. Over his sixteen years of life he'd mostly been focused on training in ninja techniques, training in fighting techniques, and otherwise trying to survive in a fairly hostile world. This world including girls who while attractive and desirable were just as scary (if not more so) than the majority of opponents he'd faced in the past. Fighting against enemies is easy; you know what they're after and you know what to do. Beat them up and move onto the next ones. Women were strange, confusing and seemingly natural experts of deception. All things Naruto was not too skilled at dealing with. He preferred punching problems till they stopped being problems. But this was a situation punching wasn't going to bring a resolution.

Since agreeing to go on this blind double date to chaperon Konohamaru's own little adventure he'd been growing more and more concerned if this was really a good idea. Konohamaru had assured him he'd get set up with a babe but that didn't make him feel much better. Well a little better, but it was still something he wasn't used to. What if he messed up, in front of the kid no less? If word got around that Konohamaru could handle himself better on a date than Naruto it would be the kind of thing his friends would never let up on. "Oh well... guess I gotta be a man and face this head on. Hope your looking out for me on this one, Pervy Sage." He gave a little prayer of guidance to his old mentor Jiraiya, one of the greatest ninja to have ever lived and one of the closest people to him in his life. The man claimed not only to be a master of ninja techniques but also when it came to picking up women. While the ninja skills part was true as far as Naruto could tell the old guy wasn't good at much more than spying on women and writing dirty romance novels about them. Regardless he'd be more than happy to have the support and advice now.

Naruto strolled out into the warm Summer afternoon, feeling a nice breeze as he went off on this mysterious meeting. With the warm season having rolled in the timing was perfect to play some festival games with friends and dates. Naruto was wearing an autumn colored yukata robe filled with orange and red hues, a traditional outfit for this kind of season. It wasn't the kind of thing he'd normally put on but Konohamaru had informed him they'd all be wearing one today so he had to go along. At least it was comfortable and casual, and it was better than having to try and think of what he'd wear to make a good impression. He was carrying a small fan with the Konoha leaf symbol on it as well for his blind date. Despite Sai's questionable advice he was willing to follow some of it and get his date a small gift. He continued through the town to meet up with his little buddy and find out exactly where they'd be meeting the ladies since Naruto had no clue. When he finally did discover Konohamaru it wasn't what he was expecting.

"I told you already this is a very important mission, why wont you believe me?" Naruto could hear him from a ways off already. Konohamaru was wearing a light green yukata robe as well with leaf designs over white as if they were blowing in the wind. Seemed the kid was taking this a bit more seriously than Naruto since in his hand he was holding a flower to give to his date. It didn't look like it was going well though as he was arguing with Moegi in the street. "It's not like I can make it any clearer!"

"You know Konohamaru, you could at least tell the truth!" Moegi was wearing her normal clothes and gear she was usually seen in when they go on missions. That was clue one she wasn't Konohamaru's date, and thankfully not the girl Konohamaru had set up Naruto with. "If your going to run around with this girl then fine but... don't just make dumb excuses!" Jeez, at this rate they were going to make a scene. Naruto normally wouldn't get involved in something like this but as the kids senior he felt obligated. Approaching from their side he tried to appear to them before they knew he was that close. His own teacher Kakashi pulled this trick all the time and he'd like to be the one to do it for a change.

"I'm not making excuses! If you'd just listen for once maybe you'd get it!" Konohamaru was getting frustrated and raising his voice along with her, getting glances from the crowd now but the kids didn't seem to notice or care. When he felt he was sufficiently close Naruto interjected.

"So... is everything okay here?" Both Moegi and Konohamaru jumped a bit hearing his voice which filled Naruto with a bit of satisfaction. No wonder Kakashi did this. "I couldn't help but hear you guys yelling." The two kids looked around a bit and straightened up right away seeing everyone was looking. Konohamaru tried to play it cool like nothing had happened.

"Oh there you are Naruto! I was waiting forever. No everything is fine here." Despite playing it off Moegi still seemed like she had a death glare of anger on Konohamaru and Naruto figured he must have done something to make her so mad.

"Yeah I just got here. So is Moegi coming with us?" When he mentioned it the two looked at each other and Konohamaru seemed like he was sweating bullets at the suggestion. "I could have swore you said we were picking up Hanabi though, right?" Apparently it was the wrong thing to say, which was a talent of Naruto's as he had quite a history of blurting statements out. When Hanabi's name was mentioned Moegi got more upset and actually pushed Konohamaru down onto his butt. The boys looked at her in disbelief as she was too frustrated to speak and ran away. "H-hey Moegi! Wait up, are you okay!"

"Let her go." Konohamaru said with a grumpy tone and dusted himself off. "She's acting totally crazy! She's been that way all week and I have no idea what's going on with her." Konohamaru gave his flower a double check to be sure it didn't get damaged and seemed satisfied with his inspection. Naruto was still suspicious though.

"Did you do something to her?"

"What! No way!" Konohamaru protested but Naruto wasn't totally convinced.

"I dunno, it seems weird she'd just get angry like that at you."

"I told you she's been weird all week. We should go so we're not late, okay Big Bro?" It was a nick name he'd earned with Konohamaru and his friends years ago. Naruto didn't have any real siblings, or family for that matter. So it was nice to have people like Jiraiya and Konohamaru to let Naruto know what it felt like to have one.

"Yeah, I guess your right. So you know where to go to meet them?"

"Well yeah, we got to pick Hanabi up at her house first." Made sense to him. With Konohamaru leading the way the duo made off for the Hyuuga compound. Yes, compound was the right word for it. The Hyuuga were one of the wealthiest families in the village they all lived in and their family owned a sizable portion of land to live on. Only a few families in the village had such a right to claim so much territory for their own, so Hanabi's family stood out as one of the most important. It was visible within two blocks of walking there and before long the boys were within sight of the front gate. Naruto wasn't exactly comfortable with entering, even with being friends with two of the family members here. Luck would have it though that they wouldn't need to. "I think that's them in front of the building now."

Naruto could tell Hanabi was standing by the front gate of the building. The smaller girl was facing them but there was another person right in front of her. It was a woman in a yukata robe as well but this one had deep colors of blue and purple mixed into it with the outline of a crane stitched in. While the robe was nice what it was wrapped around caught Naruto's attention first. The woman was knelt down in front of Hanabi fiddling with her hair and primping her, which gave Naruto quite a generous view of the curves she was hiding under that cloth from behind. He wasn't sure if this woman was a maid or even Hanabi's MILF of a mom with womanly curves like that but he wouldn't mind if she was the blind date.

"They're here." Hanabi's voice spoke up in an oddly straight forward tone for a kid and the woman who was tending to her straightened up suddenly with the realization. Getting to her feet she turned around to face them.

"Thank you for being so prompt in arriving Konohamaru. I hope you wont mind if I... Naruto?" The woman blinked looking forward at him. Naruto was confused for a moment when she seemed to recognize him. Then it dawned on him.

"Hinata?" It was Hanabi's older sister. Naruto didn't recognize her right away since she had her own hair tied up as opposed to it hanging long down her back. She was going to be his date?

"Wha-what are you doing here?" Hinata began to blush and stammer a little. It was weird, she was always like this. Well... at least she was always like this whenever Naruto was around. When they were younger Naruto had often caught her standing behind trees and telephone poles spying on him. He didn't understand what her deal was then and he still didn't really follow why she had acted that way to this day.

"Well um... what are you doing here?" Okay that was stupid, she already asked you the same question. Still surprisingly she gave in and answered him first.

"I was supposed to chaperon Hanabi on her date. My father wouldn't allow her to go out with a boy otherwise." Okay well that made sense, considering how rich and important the Hyuuga were he was sure that her dad wouldn't just let his only daughters go out with any old kid unsupervised. But wait... if they already had a chaperon then why did Konohamaru ask him along in the first place?

"Hold on a second please." Naruto tried to smile politely as he grabbed Konohamaru by the back of his robe and drug him off for a quick conversation. Once they were out of ear shot of the now perplexed girls he set the boy down again. "So... Hinata was Hanabi's chaperon... and she's also my blind date?"

"Worked out pretty well huh?" Konohamaru smiled innocently but Naruto wasn't buying it.

"So if you knew all along she was going to have one with you in the first place why did you ask me to come along?"

"Well your the one that said it was lame to have a chaperon watch us all night on a date didn't you?" Well... yeah that was true but... "And I said I'd set you up with a hot babe, didn't I?" Well yeah... okay Hinata was a little weird sometimes but she was indeed attractive. "So I figured this way it would all work out for the best. Why, your not complaining are you? You seemed happy enough when you were checking out her butt on the walk over here." Smart ass kid. Naruto grabbed him by the robe again with a threatening fist.

"I was not staring at her butt!" Okay so yeah maybe he was but he didn't have to admit to it. Deep breaths now. Calm down, your the adult here. "So if this was your plan all along why all the subterfuge? I mean you couldn't just tell me what was up?"

"Well if I did that you might have chickened out, so now your stuck and I can get my date." Konohamaru was grinning like a clever little monkey, causing Naruto to flick his forehead to teach him a lesson in manners. Holding his head in pain Konohamaru gave a glare at the older boy. "This isn't going to be a problem is it?" Was it a problem? Damn complicated question. Even Naruto was aware at this point that Hinata had feelings for him. She'd essentially confessed it to him in a life or death situation they were both in at a previous time ago. It wasn't like Naruto didn't even like her himself. Fact was she was very pretty, she was kind to people, and her curves in front were just as complimentary as the curves in back. Still it was so awkward. No one had ever told him they loved him before, least of all a girl. Now that she was right in front of him did he have the guts to go through with it?

"... no problem at all." Sure he could, he was a man after all. Konohamaru seemed quite happy to see Naruto's resolve return and led the walk back over to the girls who had been patiently waiting for them. Hanabi still had that cool and collected look on her face that was eerily mature for a girl her age. It sort of reminded Naruto of Neji Hyuuga, the girls' cousin. Always the serious and determined warrior. Hinata was the opposite, she actually looked like she might faint from this unexpected situation.

"Sorry to keep you guys waiting." Konohamaru was quick with the apologies to the girl, which was a nice change of pace from how he had been handling Moegi earlier. "We were just talking about where to go first on our date all together." At the mention of them all going out together as couples Hinata's face was seized with a small panic as she met eyes with Naruto.

"We-well I... that is... if you already have a chaperon... maybe I should go?" Hinata seemed like she was trying to shrink away back into the main gate of their home and Naruto was a bit disappointed. If there was one thing about Hinata that really bothered him it was her lack of confidence. She once told him that watching himself made her feel more assured but he wished she could pull that strength up from inside. It didn't seem like it was going to be a problem though since Hanabi was quick to grab her sister's wrist before she could run.

"You can't go Sister. Father wont allow me to go out without you supervising us." Hinata looked down at her sister and back at the boys and seemed helpless. She clearly didn't want to disappoint Hanabi but was becoming too flustered. Okay, once again Naruto your the adult. You can make this situation better, right?

"Well uh... you know it's not like we're really going on a date." Naruto spoke up getting everyone's attention. "I mean it's like I'm watching Konohamaru to be sure he behaves, this kid has to have someone mature around him so that he doesn't act up." Naruto nudged Konohamaru but he didn't seem to appreciate the comment. "And you have to watch your sister, so it's more like we're all just out, watching them on their date... but together. So it's not like a real date." It wasn't the most well thought out of explanations, frankly it made no sense. All the more reinforced by the glares he was receiving from Konohamaru and Hanabi after that rant.

"Well... I guess that makes it alright." Hinata finally spoke up, relieving all the tension and making Naruto feel grateful that his ramblings made her more comfortable. She was still blushing pink in her cheeks as she came closer to the group again. They stood there quiet for a while, Hinata was fiddling with her fingers at her waist and Naruto was holding his fan awkwardly. Oh yeah, the fan.

"I uh, got you something for while we were out." He held up the fan and handed it to Hinata who seemed delighted by the gift. When she took it she immediately hid herself behind it letting her eyes peek out with a small thank you. Somehow that was a lot cuter than she must have intended it to be. The kids were watching and this sparked the idea in Konohamaru's head to do the same.

"Oh yeah. Here you go." Konohamaru present the flower to Hanabi who took it and held it delicately but didn't seem to change her expression. "I like your yukata." Dropping a compliment too, kid was trying to play it smooth. But he was right, hers was very nice too, a lighter version similar to Hinata's but it instead looked like ocean water colors with decoratively colored fish designs. Hanabi took the compliment with the same polite, indifferent expression but it didn't seem to deter Konohamaru much.

"Thank you, so where are we going on our date first then?" She was so blunt it was amazing she was related to Hinata.

"Oh yeah, well we decided that we were going to go to the movies first so that all the festival games would be open when we got out." We did? Well apparently Konohamaru did anyway. Kid had already planned so many steps of this date that it didn't surprise Naruto. He just better not have any more tricks up his sleeve during this night out.

"That sounds like a good place, should we head there sister?" Hinata had been gazing at Naruto over the fan and felt embarrassed when she was addressed in the middle of her adoration. Smiling sheepishly she nodded to the girl and the two younger shinobi led the way. Naruto and Hinata stayed a few steps back to give them some space and still keep an eye on them.

"Um... Naruto." He looked up when she called over to him but as usual it took her a few seconds to get the courage to continue. "I just wanted to say that... I hope tonight is fun for you... and for all of us." She really was trying, which made him want to try as well and not just blurt out some idiot statement like usual. Naruto thought it over a bit and finally came up with,

"Yeah, I think it will be." Not the best but he wasn't done. "Hinata, you don't have to be worried." She looked a little puzzled by the statement so he helped clear things up for her further. "I mean there's no need to be nervous, we'll be fine." He smiled confidently, which made her smile in return.

When the group finally did arrive at the movies there was a debate as to which they should go to. Since the last time the village had suffered an attack from an enemy nation the towns people had been working hard to restore things back to normal. Something like entertainment wasn't the highest priority for what was essentially a military base of a city, but bless the villagers they still worked hard to bring it to the over-worked shinobi. The cinema owner had managed to recover some of the films for the reopening of the theater and while most were a little old Naruto never had a lot of time for movies to begin with, so everything was new to him. Amongst the choices left there were two that stood out to him. "I heard Deception was a good movie." Naruto commented offhandedly trying to hide that he'd really like to push the group to see this one.

"Isn't that the movie that's about shinobi that are trapped in an illusion technique that's in an illusion technique... that's in a dream or something?" Konohamaru was scratching his head like the very concept was too much to bother considering.

"I heard the story was really good, I'm interested." Well at least when Hanabi spoke there was no mincing words. One vote for Naruto's side!

"Well what about Baku Versus Tengu? It's both of those movies that finally combined their franchises for one big super action movie!" Konohamaru was going for the obvious action movie, which was expected considering his tastes. It was true, the famed Baku series of action/horror movies combined with the Tengu series of monster movies to make a super action movie. Frankly the story sounded stupid but it was a pretty big deal of an action flick and Naruto wasn't against it.

"It looks dumb." Once again, no mincing words with Hanabi. "I don't think I'd want to see that." Konohamaru looked shot down but Naruto was still pushing for Deception and with any luck he was going to get it. Just one more person to sway the vote, and he was pretty positive he'd get his way.

"So Hinata, which one of these do you want to check out?" He grinned confidently at her but she wasn't paying attention, instead she was looking at one of the movie posters on the side of the building. A bit curious Naruto walked over to read the title. "Lamplight?" The poster showed a hand holding onto a red paper lantern but it didn't really give him any idea as to what it was.

"Sister collects the books, but I don't think she's seen the movie before." Hinata came to the realization everyone was standing around her now where she was and smiled apologetically.

"Oh um... did everyone decide what we were going to see?" He guessed she hadn't been paying attention to them when they were going over the selections, she must have really been entranced by this poster.

"We were just talking about it now, what did you want to see Hinata?" She glanced over at the poster once more but quickly brought her eyes back to the group.

"Well I... I can go along with whatever anyone else wants." The same indecisive nature of hers. Naruto rubbed the back of his head trying to figure out how to actually get an opinion out of this girl.

"Well we're still kind of undecided, so if you could cast the tie-breaking vote that would help us out." She was shyly trying to figure out which one of the movies illustrated that she wanted to go to but it was hard to pick for her. Naruto decided to ease up her tension. "Were you interested in that Lamplight one?"

"Only if you want to see it." Ugh, same indecisive answer! Still it was pretty apparent that it was the only one she'd been looking at seriously.

"What's it even about anyway? I've never even heard of this. Hanabi said it was a book too right?" Hinata nodded shyly that some of her personal information had been leaked out about being a fan of the series. "When I was with Pervy Sage I never heard him mention these books, we stopped through a lot of book stores too."

"Well um... it's about a girl who falls in love with an Oni." Oh, a chick flick. "Since they're from different worlds, they try to have a relationship despite being so far apart in their respective societies." Naruto was looking at the poster now with dissatisfaction, he already had trouble focusing on things and a romance story would be hard to keep him. Hanabi was kind enough to interject for her sister.

"It all ends with the Oni clans having a battle against one another to decide whether or not they can stay together." Hmm, big battle huh? Well that sounded cool. Oni's and romance with a possibly hot actress all ending in a battle? Plus it seemed to make Hinata happy.

"Hey, BVT has a battle too!" Konohamaru was on the far side of the building trying to get everyone to pay attention to the movie poster he wanted to see. He managed to earn a few glances his way before everyone dismissed his choice again.

"So do you really want to see this Hinata?" Naruto turned attention to her again, Konohamaru was looking dejected but no one seemed to mind. "If it's a good movie I don't mind seeing it." She was fidgeting again having trouble deciding.

"O-only if you do." Couldn't she decide on her own? "If you wanted to see something else... I'm okay with it. I'm sure I'll see it... sometime... " Naruto exchanged glances with Hinabi and the two let out a sigh of surrender. It seemed the decision was pretty apparent. Naruto proceeded to buy four tickets for Lamplight. Konohamaru would just have to take one for the team on this. Thankfully seating was actually the soonest available for this choice and it wasn't long before they had a few snacks and were ready to watch the movie. Naruto tried to be optimistic. A chick flick on a date was generally the most appropriate anyway. It seemed to make Hinata happy and Hanabi didn't mind, at least as much as he could tell with her near consistent straight face. Who knows, maybe this would be awesome.

Moegi was sitting on a bench and kicking the dirt absently with the toes of her sandals. Here she was doing something that she never considered herself to be the type to do; feeling sorry for herself. She didn't get it. Konohamaru was suddenly spending so much time with this new girl. What was so special about her anyway? So her family was rich and important, but she had those weird white eyes. Maybe that's what he liked? He never mentioned anything about liking girls before really so it all seemed kind of sudden. Once he would though she was sure that if it was about a girl their age that... you know... it would have been her.

She wasn't even really wanting to date anyone, she enjoyed things the way they were and was happy to be on a team with her friends. But sudden situations have a way of bringing out feelings you didn't even know you had. The more she focused on the subject the more it depressed her. "Is it her hair?" Moegi felt the long, almost vertical pig tails she wore her hair in. It was cute wasn't it? Not dark and long like Hanabi's but she liked it. "If not that then..." She put a hand on her chest. They were only twelve so the girls didn't have a lot in the way of feminine curves to speak of to begin with. Still somehow Hanabi was able to beat her in this area as well with her noticeably larger... "It better not be that, you pervert." Moegi crushed the thought before it made her upset. She grumbled to herself, this wasn't getting her anywhere. She should do something, anything.

"Moegi, you okay?" The young girl blinked and looked up to see two emerald green eyes looking at her.

"Sakura!" It was Naruto's team-mate on their ninja squad. "I didn't even see you!" The pretty teenage girl smiled at Moegi. Sakura was one of those girls that a lot of the younger kunoichi looked up to. She was pretty, her short pink hair was the kind of color you couldn't get right even if you dyed it, and she was one of the more talented ninja in the village for her age. She was the kind of girl in essence Moegi wished she could be.

"Sorry if I snuck up on you, but you didn't seem like you were paying attention to anything." Moegi must have been in such a depression that she didn't even see the girl approach her. "Everything okay, you seem like your down." Moegi wanted to respond but she didn't know how to make the words come out without it sounding pathetic. Sakura had a sympathetic smile as she sat on the bench next to the girl. "Okay, you can share with me. Is that alright?" Moegi looked up at her trying to sort her feelings out. She and Sakura never really talked before but she was a friend of Naruto's so she must be trustworthy.

"Well... okay. But it'll sound stupid."

"Try me anyway." Sakura still had a comforting smile so Moegi relaxed a bit.

"Well, it's just... Konohamaru's been acting really annoying lately." Sakura nodded a bit like she understood. "Before he used to be all about our team and doing more important missions. He really wanted to go out and do more together. But now he's been focused on... other stuff." Sakura noted Moegi's words carefully.

"What kind of other stuff?" This was the part that was going to sound stupid because it made her sound jealous. But she wanted to talk about it with someone, anyone else. So here it comes.

"He's been talking with Hanabi Hyuuga a lot lately."

"Oh, I see. So he's hanging out with another girl now instead of your team?" Moegi nodded in admittance. "So it's bothering you that he's spending so much time with another girl besides you?" Moegi noted Sakura said "you" and not "your team" but she didn't feel like hiding things anymore.

"He wont even tell the truth about it! He just went off on a date with her, but every time I ask him why or if he likes her he just keeps telling me he's doing a mission and not to worry." Sakura looked a bit puzzled now but she was clearly interested. "I mean why bring her flowers if it's a mission? Naruto even went along with them."

"Naruto went on the date with them?" That sparked Sakura's interest. "What exactly was he doing while he was with them?" Moegi shrugged, she hadn't really thought of it because she didn't really care at the time. There was one part of this that was really on her mind.

"Sakura... am I pretty?" The words came out a little sadder than she intended and unexpectedly Sakura gave Moegi a little hug with one arm. Moegi leaned against the older girl feeling kind of calm now that she'd had the opportunity to talk to someone.

"Moegi, you are pretty. In fact, I think your certainly prettier than that other girl."

"Really?" She looked up at her hopefully and Sakura nodded.

"In fact, do you know where they were headed tonight on this date?" Moegi thought about it but Konohamaru had been pretty protective with details when they had been fighting... I mean talking to each other earlier before Naruto showed up.

"Well... they were both wearing yukatas so I guess they were going to the festival?" Sakura looked like she was thinking about something and smirked to herself.

"The festival games don't really take off until later tonight. Moegi, do you have a yukata of your own?" She nodded a bit, remembering she had one at her house that should still fit her. "Then lets head by your place and pick it up, then head back to mine. We're going to have a little make-over session and go out tonight for some games. Does that sound okay to you?" It was pretty clear she had a plan in mind but Moegi didn't care, this was certainly better than being depressed. She followed the pink haired girl, feeling energy come back into her step.

"This is so lame." Konohamaru earned a smack across the back of his head for the comment being made aloud in the theater... but Naruto couldn't deny he was right. This was pretty lame. What was this? So far the Oni guy (who by the way was waaaaay too good looking for a monster) walked around looking entirely uninterested in the world around him. The action scenes there had been were few and far between and padded by large amounts of romantic... stuff. It wasn't even good romantic stuff, Naruto had traveled with a writer for three years and he felt he could at least tell good romantic stuff when he saw it. He wasn't seeing it.

i"About three things I was absolutely positive. First, Enichi was an Oni. Second, there was a part of him-and I didn't know how potent that part might be-that thirsted for death and destruction. And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him." /i

Oh my god, oh my god that was a line from the movie he was watching right now, it was painful. Someone got paid to write that. And he glittered! The Oni glittered in the sunlight! It was too much. Naruto gave a pained gaze over at Hinata but she seemed pretty entranced by the whole thing. Maybe she was watching with rose-tinted glasses due to being a fan of the books. The written stories had to be better. Naruto's only real entertainment had come from his battle between himself and Konohamaru for the popcorn. The boys had sat next to each other and their respective dates on either side. Naruto ended up surrendering the popcorn to Konohamaru but was given free reign to stick his hand in for what he wanted. It was a good truce, plus Konohamaru had finally stopped complaining which made things more tolerable. Maybe by the end of this thing the movie would make up for itself. He took another handful of popcorn to get the energy to survive it.

Once the credits started rolling Naruto was met with a sense of relief he hadn't known before. Wow, that went on way too long. The big battle Hanabi had talked about at the end was just two of the Glitter Oni's fighting each other over that girl. Who's face looked like she was in pain at all times by the way. Seriously why fight for this woman? They couldn't have gotten a better actress for this role? The books had to be better right? He wanted to ask that of Hinata but she looked just pleased as could be for having watched the movie. Naruto figured she must have gotten out even less than himself so it was satisfying in a way to have done something to make her smile like that. Well his sacrifice wasn't in vain at least. She glanced over at Naruto. "So did you like it?" Crap, she would ask that. Naruto put on the best fake smile he could muster and responded.

"Oh yeah, it was pretty good." Thank you Kakashi-sensei, your amazing techniques in bullshitting have rubbed off on your student and it was allowing Naruto to deliver these lines believably. Okay, lets take the pressure off himself. "Right Konohamaru, you liked it didn't you?" He turned to face the kid that had been holding his popcorn all through the movie for him, but got something he didn't expect. "Dammit! He did it again!" Naruto blurted out aloud as Hinata leaned forward to see what was the matter. Next to Naruto in the seats were a wooden log and a straw dummy. Konohamaru and Hanabi must have used the Ninja Replacement Technique to escape the theater without being noticed by their chaperons. Naruto was a bit relieved to have something to distract Hinata from asking him about the movie but he was going to beat that kid when he found him.

The teenage couple ran out of the theater doors looking for the two little escapees, thankfully it didn't take long. In the lobby Konohamaru and Hanabi were sitting at a table talking with one another. They ran over to where the two were sitting and approached them at the same time. Hinata put a hand on Hanabi's shoulder and let out a relieved sigh. "Oh thank goodness. Hanabi, where did you run off to? You scared me half to death."

"Where the hell did you run off to!" Naruto grabbed Konohamaru by both his shoulders and shook him a few times, nearly scaring him half to death. When he recovered from the sudden shock he pointed over to Hanabi.

"She wanted a soda!" The young girl was currently sitting in the chair calmly by her sister, sipping on a straw as if nothing was the matter. "She told me that since I'm her date I had to pay for it, so she made me come along." Naruto gave the two a glance, it made sense a bit but they were gone for probably the whole movie.

"Well okay but why didn't you come back then?" Naruto inquired further not letting Konohamaru go but Hanabi was the one to speak up this time.

"I wanted to go see Deception." Traitor! She snuck off to go see a better movie. Naruto had wanted to do that! "Sister was so happy to see her movie that I didn't want to bother her. So I made him sneak off with me so she could enjoy her date." It was kind of sweet in a way and Hinata seemed touched by her sister's words. She leaned down next to her.

"Well... I'm glad you thought of me Hanabi, but don't go running off without telling me where you are okay? It makes me worried." Hanabi nodded her head in agreement and all seemed well. Naruto didn't want to rant all night so he let Konohamaru off the hook for now. Still he gave him a little motion with his eyes that he was keeping a look out for him. "So um... should we go to the festival?" The younger couple seemed pleased with this suggestion and honestly Naruto didn't mind going out to have a little fun as well. He could use something to get the memories of that movie out of his head. The group moved out once again together in formation with the younger in the front and the older trailing behind. Hinata was smiling behind her fan again and glanced over at Naruto. "Naruto... thank you." He looked a bit confused at the statement.

"For what Hinata?"

"For staying with me... during the movie. It's not much but I still enjoyed it." Heh... yeah well... I guess that makes it okay then.

It was already dark out when they got to the street where the festival games were set up but the lights in the area made it so that it didn't matter. All the booths were alive with games and participants trying to win prizes for themselves. The quartet of shinobi walked up the street looking over the games trying to decide which one to stop at. There was a large selection of old and new but there was one that caught Naruto's eye that stood out from the rest.

"Is that a target practice game?" The group stopped in front of what was probably the largest of the booths. There was a very elaborate set up of wooden targets that seemed to move and appear and disappear behind curtains and wood walls. It looked exciting! The attendant running the booth spied the group and immediately went to work.

"Well there I see some strong men who look like they could tame my wild beast of a contraption." It was unusually phrased like a come on line but Konohamaru and Hanabi didn't seem to notice so Naruto didn't react. "Why don't you boys step up and give your hand a try! Don't be shy, win some prizes for the lovely ladies your out with tonight!" Konohamaru was the first to run up to the desk, taking a spot in front of the man and looking over the set up. Naruto filed in next to him and observed what must have been a little over a dozen ninja star shurikens laid out before them. It was pretty easy to guess what to do from here, some of the targets already had marks in them from being hit. "Now boys the rules are simple. You'll take these shuriken here which I hope you've handled before and toss them at your targets. The big targets are one point, the medium targets moving in the middle are three, and the small ones in the back are five! Manage to get enough points, you get prizes! Are you all set?" Naruto smirked to himself pulling out some money for him and Konohamaru to play. He wasn't the most accurate with throwing weapons but he was pretty decent and figured some carnival game had to be next to nothing for him. Taking his position he got ready with Konohamaru. The girls stood behind each of the boys for encouragement. Hinata happily cheering Naruto on in her quiet tone and Hanabi informing Konohamaru that he should be certain to pay attention or he'll screw up. Each boy took some of the weapons in hand and got ready. "Ready folks? One two three lets go!"

The attendant pulled a lever and the game began. It was actually a lot more difficult than Naruto had given it credit for. The big targets were slow and easy to hit but the smaller ones were fast! Especially the high ranking targets in the very back. The two boys put a pretty valiant effort forward but those fast moving targets were just too difficult to land on! What's more they moved in an opposite pattern to one another making them dizzying to watch. By the end of it Naruto had wasted most of his shuriken trying to hit the criss-crossing middle targets and Konohamaru had given up and focused on the larger ones. The attendant pulled the lever again to stop the game and declare the winners, or losers in this case. "Well boys that was a good shot but don't fret, it was built to give the best a run for their money. Here's your consolation prizes for playing." They were both handed small, wooden kunai that were painted a metallic color. It was a pretty cheap toy and they could see why they were being passed out. Konohamaru's only satisfaction was that at least he had done just as well as Naruto. The two turned back to their dates with the prizes they had won for them a little embarrassed. Hinata seemed happy enough to get anything at all and Hanabi was of course straight laced as always. Turning to her sister the girl pulled at her sleeve and motioned at the game.

"Sister, want to play with me?" Hinata was a bit surprised that Hanabi had asked but she smiled and nodded to her. Come to think of it Naruto never really saw the two girls do anything with each other so it was nice that they were spending time together. Naruto pulled out his wallet to rummage up the money for two more games but Hanabi was already hitting up Konohamaru. "Hey, pay for my game." Konohamaru looked more shocked then Hinata this time around.

"What, why do I have to pay!"

"Because your my date, you have to." The laws of dating seemed to be undeniable and Konohamaru conceded to them, giving up what dollars he had to her so that she could participate in the game. The boys backed up and took the supporting positions behind the girls this time, Naruto eager to see how good they were in comparison to him. The attendant was talking up the ladies and complimenting them of course, probably more eager to have their money than their patronage. When he laid out the shuriken in front of the girls Hanabi was looking straight ahead the whole time. "Sister, you know what to do right?" Hinata nodded in response but had the same stature as she was looking directly ahead too, never tilting to either side. When the lever was pulled and the game began the two siblings went to work. Unlike Konohamaru and Naruto who had taken the time to line up each shot and try to hit their targets the girls didn't hesitate once. In fact they never even looked down at the shuriken they were tossing, instead their hands moving in sweeping motions as they picked up each weapon and tossed them effortlessly. When the lever was pulled again there wasn't a single target of the middle or back row that didn't have a shuriken in it. The boys and even the attendant were left with blank stares as to how easily it had been performed.

"We... we have a winner!" He tried to sound excited but there was obvious apprehension in his voice that the girls managed to beat his game so easily. As he walked to the back to get their prizes Naruto heard him mumble something about how it was always girls, but he didn't quite understand the statement.

The group now back to walking on the path again Naruto was holding a highly decorated, gold painted kunai that Hinata had won. It was considerably more impressive than the small wooden one he'd earned himself and Hinata had been insistent he take it as a gift from her to him. She explained she was more than happy with her smaller one and that she wouldn't even know what to do with something so big. Well at least it was cool looking. Hanabi had taken a wooden replica of the Hokages hat, which was a long circular hat with the words "Fire Shadow" written in kanji on the front. Naruto had to admit he was a little jealous of her but didn't want to say anything out loud and seem like a child. Funny enough she had been insistent that she keep both the hat and the wooden kunai since she was the girl and Konohamaru should be the man and get her gifts on their date. He could see it was wearing the boy down a bit but Naruto was finding it endlessly amusing. "So Hinata, I had no idea you and your sister were so good with throwing weapons." The girl blushed behind her fan at the praise.

"Oh it wasn't anything really..." She modestly took the compliment with color in her cheeks. Hanabi was quick to interject.

"Well it's easy when you know how to cheat." Naruto blinked looking at the girl, who had even startled Konohamaru with the statement.

"You guys cheated?" Konohamaru was looking between the girls extremely confused. "How did you even do it? I couldn't figure out any way to get through that thing other than tossing the shurikens. Right Naruto?" It was true that the game seemed pretty straight forward.

"We just used our Byakugan." Konohamaru still looked confused and even Naruto didn't really understand. He knew that their pure white eyes could see through stuff and things like that but how did it beat the game? Hinata could see the questions in everyone's expressions and decided to explain.

"Well um... it's like this. The targets were moving in a way to make you dizzy. So um... me and Hanabi... we just used our eyes to look where they were coming from and going to." Naruto was following along but still had trouble understanding. "When you can see the targets moving without the walls and curtains blocking them, you can tell where they're going to be. Since we could see through the walls, it wasn't so strange. That's um... that's not weird, right?" Hinata seemed bothered that Naruto might be upset that she had cheated to win when he couldn't do the same.

"Well... actually it's pretty cool." Naruto stated reassuringly. "I mean if he set it up to trick us in the first place, why not use it against him?"

"A ninja's job is to succeed without your opponent knowing how." Konohamaru recited. "My grandpa used to tell me that. I guess that means if they're going to cheat us we should look for ways to cheat them back."

"You'll never be a great ninja if you can't." Hanabi stated to the boy, almost expectantly of him. "Your going to become a great ninja, right?" She was looking at him pretty intensely and Konohamaru seemed a bit flustered. Naruto could hear Hinata giggle a little behind her fan and it was fun to watch the two interact.

"Well.. yeah, yeah I will be! I'm going to be the seventh Hokage!" Konohamaru was puffing out his chest now with a sense of pride. "After Naruto gets to be the sixth I'll be the one to take over! We'll be the greatest ninja this village... the world has ever seen!" Hanabi wasn't reacting too much to his boasting and Naruto felt a little embarrassed over his declarations to the entire festival. Was that how he had acted as a kid?

"Well you got a ways to go don't you?" The groups attention was turned to a familiar female voice that had come forward to them after Konohamaru's announcement.

"Sakura, what are you doing here?" Naruto was a bit surprised to see her out. Indeed it was Sakura, the pink haired field medic of his own ninja squad. She was dressed up for the festival, sporting a pink (of course) yukata robe of her own that was decorated in colorful flower petal designs of light pink to red shades. Her hair was pulled up in the back with two red chop sticks that were clearly used for decoration over actual utensils. "I figured you had rounds at the hospital tonight." She was looking good, real good actually. Must have taken the time to dress herself up tonight. Sakura had pretty much been Naruto's first childhood crush and she'd only become prettier over time. She'd turned him down countless times in the past when he'd shown interest in her. To see her all dressed up reminded him why she'd caught his attention in the first place.

"Nope, tonight was a free one for me. You should pay more attention to your team mates habits, Naruto." She had a light tone of scolding in her voice. Sakura was one of those girls that wasn't afraid to speak her mind, a strong will and even stronger punch. Her eyes were a sparkling emerald and gave off an air of maternal care but strength. Even though her strength was at amazing heights due to her ninja techniques, her body was still a very lithe, slender figure. In many ways she was the opposite of Hinata. "Since our night was free we decided we'd enjoy the festival together." Once she started speaking of herself with another Naruto took the time to look around and saw Moegi was buy Sakura's side, and she was looking considerably dressed up as well.

"Hey Konohamaru, how are you doing?" Moegi waved over to the boy who looked at her in disbelief. Like all the others Moegi was in a yukata as well, a yellow one that had a cute scenery stitched into it of a sun and sunflowers. That wasn't really the most startling change though, as her long pigtails had been braided down into two tails behind her. It was actually pretty cute considering such a drastic change in style and she wasn't wearing the over-abundance of blush on her cheeks either. "Enjoying the festival?" Konohamaru seemed a bit confused as to how he was supposed to react, which reminded Naruto of the argument he'd walked into that the two of them had earlier that day. He was wondering what exactly was going on here.

"It's kind of unusual to see you and Moegi together, I didn't think you guys were such good friends." Naruto commented to Sakura but she wasn't bothered by the statement.

"Well we didn't have anyone to go out with so we decided to walk together, nothing out of the ordinary to that is there?" The heck there wasn't. "Were you going to play any of the games? It looked like some of you had already won a few." She was referring to the kunai Naruto was holding and he scratched the back of his head sheepishly.

"Well actually it was Hinata who..."

"Hey Konohamaru, do you think you could get me one of those prizes?" Moegi was pulling Konohamaru's attention over to one of the booths that had several large stuffed animals. It seemed like she was trying to keep his attention pretty focused on her but Naruto didn't have much of a chance to dwell on it.

"Oh Naruto, are you any good at those gold fish games? I was thinking of getting a few for myself." He found his own attention being pulled towards another. Hinata was looking back at her sister as she was sticking by Konohamaru's side but she didn't really want to leave Naruto. "It's kind of difficult for me. Do you think you could help?" This smelled like a set-up somehow, and Naruto wasn't the brightest of detectives so it must have been pretty obvious. Still he couldn't figure out for the life of him as to why they would go to the effort. The kids were still in sight so he didn't worry too much but it still felt weird.

Approaching the game both where the gold fish tank was set up Naruto prepared to wing some fish. "So uh... yeah can I have a try?" Naruto awkwardly asked the woman running the stand. The tank in front of Naruto was filled with fish, some gold fish and others of a few different types he didn't really recognize but they were colorful. She handed him a paper scoop and asked if he'd played before, which he responded yes, just try to scoop out as many fish as he could without the paper tearing. He was handed a bowl with some water in it and got ready to begin.

Glancing over his shoulder he saw Hinata who seemed just as confused by these events as himself, Sakura however seemed in perfect composure. As he got ready to make his first scoop Sakura spoke up again. "So Hinata, are you and Naruto enjoying your date together?" Naruto gulped a bit and dipped the scoop directly into the water when Sakura asked that, tearing the paper immediately. He sighed and paid the booth attendant for another scoop while the girls conversed behind him.

"Oh it's um... it's not a real... d-date." Hinata was of course stammering with embarrassment at the question. "It's just t-that... Hanabi needed someone to watch over her... so I, I mean my father asked that I keep an eye on her... on her date." Sakura let out a little humming sound as if she were processing the information.

"Well that's sure kind of you as a big sister. So if your their chaperon why is Naruto here?" This line of conversation was starting to make the boy sweat but he tried focusing on his task of catching the fish instead of feeling the two women of his affections talk behind him.

"Well it's... kind of a funny story. You see Naruto was supposed to be Konohamaru's chaperon. But he didn't know I was supposed to watch Hanabi, so we both... sort of ended up. Like this." There was a tone of happiness to Hinata's voice and Sakura was still making that low hum of understanding as she thought about Hinata's words.

"Oh, so you didn't intend to go out together, but it was just a random occurrence, right?" Hinata nodded silently hiding her face behind her fan again as she was being interrogated. "By the way Hinata, that's a pretty fan you have there. Did you get it at the festival?"

"Oh no, Naruto got it for me." Naruto gulped a lump down his throat but managed not to break the paper of his scoop. "Right before we went out to the movies." He felt like there was a heavy aura behind him, looking over his shoulder he caught a glance of Sakura's face. She was smiling and looking pleasant but Naruto recognized those eyes. They weren't the eyes of a happy woman; they were cold and calculating. The smile was plastered onto her face in a better display of false happiness than Sai could ever hope to do. "It is nice isn't it. All I was able to get him so far was a prize at one of the booths."

"Well you two seem like your really enjoying your time together." Hinata made a happy noise as she smiled in agreement to Sakura. "So are you planning on doing this together again?"

"GOT 'EM!" Naruto shot up from his crouched position over the fish tank to the girls. He was holding two bags of fish for each one of the ladies. Even if he'd failed at the shuriken game Naruto was actually a fairly skilled ninja so it didn't take him long two get two decent sized bags before giving up. Handing them to each of the girls they looked over the fish.

"They're pretty." Hinata was observing them swimming around in the bag, Sakura was doing the same, but not before comparing her bag against Hinata's and seeing that the dark haired girl had a slightly large selection of fish than herself. She kept the smile up thought with those same eyes and bowed a little to Naruto.

"Thank you Naruto, they are pretty! I couldn't have gotten so many on my own."

"Yeah well always glad to help oh look there's Konohamaru hey lets check on him HEY Konohamaru!" Naruto walked away from the booth in a quick step to the boy who was walking towards them himself. Both girls were carrying large stuffed toys of a monkey, Hanabi's was a bright, almost obnoxious color of pink while Moegi was holding a light blue one. Seemed Konohamaru had done pretty well for himself too. When they met up Naruto was able to see that the girls seemed like they were keeping a fair distance from one another while Konohamaru was stuck between looking a bit distraught. "Hey guys, seems like you won some nice prizes yourself."

"Konohamaru got them for us." Moegi offered up the information. "He managed to get the biggest prize there." Konohamaru smiled a bit at the compliment and seemed embarrassed from the praise. Naruto thought he saw what must have been the first real emotion in Hanabi's eyes as she didn't seem very pleased with Moegi. She grabbed a hold of Konohamaru's arm in her own and looked at Hinata.

"I'm getting hungry Sister. Can we stop some place to eat?"

"I guess it has been a while hasn't it?" Hinata was looking around now for a place that served food and didn't seem to catch the eyes of animosity between Moegi and Hanabi. "I wonder where we should go to?"

"I already know where I want to go, can we head there now?"

"Oh. Well I guess we can, if that's alright?" She looked to Naruto for approval and he shrugged in agreement. Hanabi always seemed to know what she wanted to do and when she wanted to do it, no sense in arguing now. Besides she'd have Konohamaru sneak them both off again and it wouldn't do any good for him or Hinata if they took off. "I'm sorry Sakura, I know we just got together here." Sakura shook her head still keeping up the perfect performance.

"Not at all, Moegi and I had planned on spending tonight together anyway. We'll look for you after your done at dinner." Hinata nodded happily to her as they were off, Hanabi already on the move and Naruto having to follow behind quickly in pursuit. This time however Hanabi was walking ahead of Konohamaru without him, holding onto her stuffed animal. Hinata walked up beside her to find out where it was they were headed while Konohamaru hung in the back with Naruto. The two boys exchanged glances and when they were out of earshot of Moegi and Sakura he finally spoke up.

"She was mad, huh?" Naruto blinked in surprise.

"You could tell?"

"Oh yeah, those eyes. Uncle Asuma once told me about it. I guess he made Aunt Kurenai mad once and she had the same look." Well good for him to be able to spot it. A man doesn't learn about that kind of thing unless it was through experience. "Did you do something?"

"No! I got no idea what that was all about." Naruto grumbled crossing his arms, he really couldn't understand what was happening here. "Well what about you and Moegi? She seemed like she forgave you for whatever it was you guys were fighting about earlier."

"I told you we weren't fighting." Naruto gave him a look like he knew better but Konohamaru stuck to the story. "We weren't. She seemed okay.. I guess."


	3. Chapter 3

When Naruto had been pulled away by Sakura to the booth with the gold fish scooping Moegi made her move. Moegi was certain with the two of them separated she could figure out what was really going on with him and after the make-over Sakura had put her through she felt confident enough to succeed. She'd been apprehensive to try a new hair style but she felt the double braids in the back were as cute as Sakura insisted and wore them with pride. At least it seemed to catch Konohamaru's attention but she couldn't figure out if he liked it or was just surprised. "So you can win me one right?" She pointed out one of the larger toys that were on display and Konohamaru nodded with a bit of hesitation. The booth attendant came around to their side of the display and started on his speech similar to the one from the last game he'd been to.

"Well looks like we have quite a popular crowd here tonight, don't we? You kids enjoying the festival?" They all nodded in unison, Moegi was beginning to notice that Hanabi was giving her a glare and responded with the same to the girl. "So how many are playing?"

"I guess it's just me?" Konohamaru held up his hand to volunteer.

"Great, let me tell you how it works. You get one chance to toss a ball in the box. The ball lands in a circle, you get a prize. Red circle gets you a small prize, blue circle gets you a medium prize, green gets you a large. Land on one of the gray circles and you get a top prize." The booth set up seemed like it was stacked against you. The circles for the plastic ball were spread out pretty far inside of a clear plastic box and the ones for the cheaper prizes seemed like they may actually be deeper than the blue or green ones. The gray ones looked near impossible, in each corner of the box and barely deep enough to hold the ball. "Let me know when your ready to play son."

"I got it." Konohamaru paid the man and took the ball confidently. Moegi was interested to watch now as he lined up his shot and gave the ball and underhand toss. It landed well into one of the gray circles but popped out almost immediately and bounced around inside the plastic box. When it finally did come to a stop it was unsurprisingly on a red circle.

"Oh, so close so close but a good effort. Good job son, not many do as well as you did." He pulled out a small stuffed animal of a frog and handed it to him. Konohamaru looked at it with some disappointment but handed it to Moegi.

"Sorry I couldn't get you the one you wanted." Moegi saw he really was sorry for it but hugged the toy and smiled.

"No that's alright, I'm just happy you won me something." Konohamaru had a smile on his face that looked really pleased but the moment was interrupted abruptly.

"I want one too." Hanabi grabbed onto Konohamaru's arm and hugged it against her chest, making the boy blush and earning a more intense glare from Moegi. Konohamaru let out a sigh and nodded in agreement.

"Okay I'll try to win you one too." He reached into his pocket and felt around for what money he had left, offering it up to the attendant and taking another ball in hand, then stopped for a moment and looked to Hanabi. "Oh if you know a trick to this game too now is the time to mention it." Moegi wasn't sure why he was asking her that and she found it bothered her that they had something between them that was secret.

"I can't figure it out if there is one." Hanabi responded bluntly and Konohamaru sighed, lining up his shot again. Tossing it in similar to before he landed it in the exact same place and it went bouncing around the plastic box. They watched it roll around pretty intently before it finally stopped on a red circle.

"Even closer that time! My boy you have a talent!" The attendant knew how to play it up didn't he? "Here's your reward son." Another frog, this one a brown color instead of green. He handed it to Hanabi who held it in her arms similar to how Moegi had. She thanked him politely and he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. Moegi wasn't going to have any of that.

"So Konohamaru, was there anything else you wanted to play together?" Moegi said just as sweetly as she could ask, Konohamaru turning to her right away just like how she wanted. "I'm sure there's a lot more games here we could do together." Before the boy could answer Hanabi was on his arm again.

"He's playing them with me because he's with me tonight." Moegi glared and grabbed a hold of his other arm.

"He can play with who ever he wants to, you don't own him." She hugged onto Konohamaru's arm just as tightly, the two girls getting into a glaring contest now.

"He did what you asked him to do, he doesn't have any more obligations to you." Moegi was gritting her teeth, this girl was rubbing her the wrong way every time she spoke.

"Yeah well... no he didn't! I asked him to get me the big prize and he hasn't gotten it yet!" It was a pretty weak argument but she needed something to give herself more time and figure out what these two were really up to together. "So he's with me until he does!"

"Hey I didn't agree to that." Konohamaru tried to protest but he got yanked around a little by Hanabi. "Be-besides, I'm out of money."

"You shouldn't make unrealistic demands for something just because your greedy." Moegi held back the desire to claw Hanabi's little white eyes out. Trying to figure out another way to keep them here she went for the desperate approach.

"Hey, this prize was worth at least one try right?" She held up the stuffed frog to the attendant. "I'll gamble this for another ball that he can get me the top prize!" Konohamaru looked shocked that she was willing to do this.

"Moegi! Really it's not that big a deal..."

"Fine, I'll wager it too!" Hanabi put her stuffed frog down on the counter as well. "You can do it right Konohamaru? A great ninja could." He looked between the girls as if he was in an impossible situation. The attendant scratched his head looking at the kids and shrugged.

"Fine then, if the boy wants to give it a go I'll let him." The both attendant took the toys back and laid out two more balls in front of Konohamaru, who let out an exasperated sigh. He took one in hand and looked the box over. He seemed like he was seriously considering his shot before something occurred to him.

"Hey, can I toss both balls at once?" The attendant thought it over for a moment then shrugged.

"Why not, knock yourself out kid." Konohamaru nodded. The booth attendant seemed more than confident Konohamaru wouldn't win but Moegi had hope. She'd seen that look in Konohamaru's eyes before, when he's really thinking seriously. He stood there for a while before taking the second ball in hand and tossed them both into the box more forceful than the other two times. The balls hit on opposite sides of the box into the gray circles, and as expected bounced out again. When they did though they hit each other and bounced back into the corners of the box, stopping dead in the gray circles and settling still. Everyone had a look of amazement at what they'd just seen, especially the attendant who'd probably never seen anyone make a shot like that before. He didn't argue, didn't even congratulate him. Instead he just grabbed the two large stuffed monkey toys off the top of the display and handed them to each one of the girls. Moegi was grinning from ear to ear at the Konohamaru's amazing display.

"Thank you Konohamaru! You did great back there."

"Just like a true ninja would." Moegi guessed that's what passed as a compliment from Hanabi. Satisfied in their work Konohamaru started heading back towards Naruto, saying he didn't want to get accused of running off again without telling him. It seemed like an excuse so that Konohamaru could be close to his supportive older-brother figure but Moegi let him have it, he'd already earned a prize for her. As they were headed back she could feel Hanabi's glare on her and it was sort of an accomplishment. She wanted the other girl to know she was around, wanted her to be aware Konohamaru noticed her too.

When they regrouped with Naruto Hanabi immediately suggested they leave the festival for food and pulled the group away from her and Sakura. To think she'd stated earlier that Moegi was childish and greedy. Once they were far off she rejoined Sakura who looked eager to ask her about the game. "So how did it go?"

"Well he got me a prize." Moegi held up the stuffed monkey in display to Sakura who nodded. "Naruto got you something too?"

"Yeah, a little smaller than Hinata's." She held up the gold fish in the plastic bag for Moegi to see but it was the comment that got her attention. She knew Sakura was trying to help her get Konohamaru to notice her, she never considered there was something that Sakura was after too. "Don't worry though, you'll get another shot when they come back."

"You mean we'll get another shot?" Sakura smiled at Moegi, disregarding her suggestive question.

"Should we enjoy ourselves a bit before that though?" She motioned to some impressive looking mechanized target practice machine at one end of the booths. Oh well, even if she had gotten dressed up for one purpose she could have some fun until then.

* * *

"This is a pretty fancy place." Naruto commented looking over the restaurant Hanabi had taken them too. It was a bit higher class than what he was used to anyway, a far cry from the Ichiraku Ramen Stand he normally got his dinners from. Hanabi didn't pay too much attention to the comment, Hinata seemed a bit confused.

"Really? Our family comes here a lot for dinner." Naruto let out a sigh, it was kind of a social indicator to him that she wouldn't recognize this as being a place outside of someone's normal income. He was looking over the items trying to figure out how he was going to afford all this for everyone. Maybe Hinata could cover him this time? "You don't like it?" Hinata asked him worriedly.

"Oh actually it's really nice, just different for me. But different is good." He tried to reassure her so that she didn't get distressed over the selection. Then went back to being distressed over the prices. When the waiter approached them Naruto was quick to state he wasn't sure what he wanted, Hanabi and Konohamaru mercifully doing the same. It gave him further opportunity to think of how to take care of this without losing face. Maybe he could get a tab going since he worked for the village?

"I'm going to the restroom." Hanabi stated abruptly as she got up from her chair. Hinata offered to come along but she assured her that it was fine and she should stay at the table with the rest. Naruto barely noticed as he was thinking things through still. An idea occurred to him though as he was going over which item was the cheapest.

"Hey Konohamaru, need to ask you something." He whispered to the boy and hoped that Hinata didn't notice. "You were uh... you were related to the third Hokage right? Don't you have like a trust fund or a credit line or something?" Konohamaru was thinking the question over before finally responding.

"... what?" Naruto grumbled to himself.

"I can't pay for this okay! Seriously there's no way I could afford a place like this." Konohamaru seemed to get it finally. "So like, any way you can get the restaurant to give us a tab and I can pay you back later? Just this once? You got the hook ups right?" Konohamaru smiled and gave him a thumbs up from behind the menu so Hinata wouldn't see. Not that it would matter, she could see through objects if she wanted to.

"Sure thing Bro, I can cover you." Konohamaru put his menu down and politely informed the table that he would also be heading to the restroom. Getting up to leave Naruto noticed him walk a path to the front counter and he felt his worries wash away. Looking at the menu with new vigor and appetite he was now wondering what he could get away with ordering and enjoy for himself.

"Did you decide what you wanted yet?" Hinata looked up from her menu, seeming to come to a decision already herself. Naruto shook his head.

"Nah, it's all different to me so I'm still not sure what to get." Hinata nodded and looked down at the table, no longer having her fan to hide behind since they'd checked their possessions in at the front counter. "Did you want to help me pick something out?" She looked up embarrassed but nodded and slid over to sit closer to him. They went over the selections a bit before finding something that resembled ramen noodles enough that they were sure Naruto would enjoy it. With that bit of interesting conversation over the two sat in silence, not really sure what to talk about. Naruto's mind started to wander onto what he'd be doing tomorrow and if Kakashi would have any missions ready for him. He'd just gotten to what supplies he was going to have to pick up from the store before his train of thought was broken.

"Naruto?" He shook his head coming out of the day dream and looked towards Hinata. "I know that... this was kind of a surprise for you. I mean I didn't think we'd be going out together tonight." Well that was true, probably more so for her than himself. He at least knew there would be a date for him, she didn't even know another guy was coming. "But I wanted to thank you."

"Aw, you don't have to Hinata."

"No really I... Naruto, you know that I..." She was getting embarrassed again but he could tell she was making an effort to get through it. "Well you know that I wanted to do this. For a long time. Now that we're here I'm just happy that you stayed behind and didn't run off this morning."

"You don't have to thank me Hinata, I've had fun tonight too." Well okay it wasn't all great. The movie sucked, Konohamaru kept pulling tricks on him, and he'd been totally showed up at festival games. Well really that stuff wasn't that bad, it had been kinda fun. Except that weird bit with Sakura and Moegi. "Heck if you wanted to do this again I would be okay with it."

"R-really!" Hinata was all sorts of flustered again after he suggested it, disappointing Naruto a little. He was was enjoying her getting some self confidence. Still she looked happy. Before he could comment the waiter approached them both.

"Mr Uzumaki?" Naruto blinked.

"Yeah, that's me."

"There's an item for you at the front counter. If you could please?" The waiter motioned for him to come along, Hinata looked confused but Naruto had no idea what was going on either so he just shrugged and went along with it. As they walked up he found it was actually a letter in an envelope.

"The heck... who'd send me a letter at a restaurant?" He opened it up to read the note.

_"Dear Big Bro. Sorry but I had to ditch you guys again. Hanabi told me she wanted ice cream and that as her date I had to go along with it. So wanted to let you know I'd meet you outside of the restaurant when you were done."_

That sneaky little... he did it again! Naruto felt himself fuming inside but kept reading the letter.

_"Also I took care of the payment for you, so don't worry about that. You guys can get whatever you want and it's all paid for. Try not to mess this up okay? I went to a lot of trouble to set you up for a dinner with a hot babe, don't want you screwing it up. See you later!"_

Naruto could have strangled the kid if it wasn't for the fact he was covering their dinner. Walking back over to the table Hinata looked up with expectation. "So... what was it?"

"Oh uh, they just wanted to ask about... um... payment. Yeah it's taken care of so don't worry about it." Naruto smiled his foxy grin and thankfully Hinata accepted it. "Well I know what I want, do you?" Hinata nodded to him.

"I'm prepared." They sat in silence for a little longer waiting for the waiter to come by again. Mustering up her courage Hinata started the conversation once more. "So Naruto, it must have been interesting... traveling with someone as great as Jiraiya." Bringing up Naruto's old teacher made him smile immediately.

"That old perverted sage? Yeah it was interesting. But it was pretty tough too. We did a lot of crazy stuff besides training." Naruto laughed a little to himself just thinking about it. "I guess it's just the way he was, but I don't think I'd have had it any other way."

"Really? It sounds like fun. Were there any stories you had from your travels?"

"Oh do I! Like lets see... the time we over ran an entire village with frog summons!" Hinata blinked a little confused but Naruto was already on a roll. "Oh this is a great one. It was all about three years ago in the summer..." Naruto was rambling on like an old man himself but Hinata didn't mind. In fact she was having the night of her life.

* * *

Hanabi had been sitting on a bench not too far away from the restaurant when Konohamaru had finally snuck out as well. She was swaying her feet back and forth and watching a small fountain in the middle of the four way crossing they were at. She didn't turn her head when Konohamaru approached but he figured she saw him already. "Did you sneak out okay?" Sure enough she asked without even a head motion his direction.

"Yep, they're all on their own, just like us now."

"Seems you did better tonight than I expected you to." She was talking in a very professional manner now but he'd gotten used to it from her. After all she'd been pretty consistent the whole night in her mannerisms. Wasn't like she was being any colder to him than anyone else.

"Well a great ninja finds a way to succeed without being caught, right?" He was smirking to himself in a cocky manner. Hanabi turned her head to look at him eye to eye now and that settled him down.

"That is true. If you keep it up you really will be one eventually." It made his heart skip a beat when she spoke to him like that. She said it so confidently that it surprised him and even got him a little flustered.

"Yeah well... I guess together we do a good job huh?" Hanabi stood up now to face him. You know despite her near cold and methodical attitude Konohamaru had to admit she really was just as pretty as her older sister. He could see why Naruto would like being around one of these Hyuuga girls...

"There you are!" Konohamaru's flushed cheeks ran cold as ice as he got pale, hearing Moegi's words call out to him in the night. They both turned to face Moegi and Sakura not far behind her. Moegi wasn't pretending to be tolerant of him any longer but Konohamaru noted she still had the stuffed toy he'd won for her back at the festival. "Your pretty slippery Konohamaru but you can't get away from me for long." She was upset again and Konohamaru noted the glare Hanabi was giving her. What was it about girls that they seemed so aggressive with one another?

"I'm not trying to get away from anyone! Well, not you anyway. What are you so angry for, I didn't do anything wrong to you." Moegi was still a bit flushed with her temper but mercifully Sakura came up behind her and put a hand on her shoulder, the Moegi calming when she felt the older girl by her. "Seriously, I told you exactly what I was doing tonight. I haven't been trying to hide from you."

"You told me you were going on a mission!" When Moegi said that aloud Hanabi's eyes shot onto Konohamaru, making him gulp feeling her stone cold gaze his direction.

"You told her what we were doing tonight?" It was the first time he'd noted a tone of anger in Hanabi and that scared him more than anything.

"No! No, I didn't tell her anything! Well I didn't tell her details, but I didn't want to lie to her." Konohamaru was stammering now and he felt backed into a corner by the two girls.

"You weren't supposed to tell anyone what we were doing tonight." Hanabi was getting pretty upset, but Moegi seemed like she was worse.

"So your little date is a mission? What you actually have to hire a guy to go out with you?" Hanabi's gaze shot over to Moegi and oddly enough it didn't make Konohamaru feel any better that they were focused on each other now. Just when it seemed like things were going to get out of hand Sakura stepped in between the girls with a question that's been bugging her all night,

"Okay, before this goes any farther, can someone please tell me what's really going on around here?"

"Perhaps I could help with that?" They were approached now by a tall young man with dark hair and pure white eyes similar to Hanabi's. He was wearing a white uniform similar to Hanabi's training gear as well, so it was no surprise when she called out to him.

"Neji, you finally arrived." The older bow bowed slightly to the young girl when he approached.

"Miss Hanabi, I'm glad to see you here. I take it everything went according to plan?" It was kind of unusual seeing an older boy like Neji bow to Hanabi, but that was the social structure of their family. Despite being seventeen and the oldest of everyone here, and on top of that holding the rank of a Jonin Ninja, he still had to defer to Hanabi as his mistress since she was the daughter of the head of their clan. Hanabi was now nodding to him and and when he had appeared she had either dismissed or hid her anger towards Moegi very well.

"They're in place exactly like you asked us. I hope we did everything to your request." Sakura and Moegi looked more confused than ever now, especially when Neji pulled out his wallet and began to give out payment to Konohamaru and Hanabi.

"Well done, I couldn't have done this without you. What cover story did you give them to escape?"

"Oh I told them Hanabi wanted ice cream and she made me take her. I figured she's been bossing me around so much tonight that no one would question it." Hanabi gave a leer in Konohamaru's direction but he didn't take note of it. "We said we'd meet them after the dinner was over so I guess we should stick close by." Neji shook his head to the statement.

"Don't worry, I'll leave a message to the restaurant that I took Miss Hanabi home myself when I stop by to pay. That way they wont have to worry about rushing through their meal." Neji spotted the small wooden Kunai in the belt of Konohamaru's yukata. "You two stopped by the target range at the festival?" Hanabi looked surprised he'd guessed that so easily.

"How did you know Neji?" He pointed down at the small wooden toy Konohamaru was carrying.

"That little prize there. My team mate Tenten managed to win so many times there that I think the booth owner believes kunoichi to be bad luck now." He smiled a bit to himself recalling how many games she'd managed to get banned from. With her skill and aim there was barely a festival game that wasn't hers to plunder. "Well, I guess I should get to the restaurant now to..."

"Okay stop everything!" Sakura interjected into the conversation rather forcefully. "What the heck is this!" Neji was taken aback when she threw herself towards him but regained his composure shortly after. Konohamaru wondered if all the Hyuuga were this straight laced.

"Well simply put I hired Hanabi to perform a mission for me." Neji began calm and collected. "I needed a method for Miss Hinata to be allowed to go on a date with Naruto Uzumaki. We both knew she was too shy to ask herself and feared Naruto was constantly too distracted to ever move forward at all." As Neji weaved the mystery behind tonight you could see the realization sink into the two girls listening. "Hanabi decided if she was forced to accompany her on a date then we could set up the arrangement ourselves. The next step was securing an individual who could play their part well enough to get Naruto into position. She chose Konohamaru based on the boy's relationship with Naruto." Konohamaru smirked proudly at how well he'd played his part in all of this. "After that I informed them not to share the details with anyone should word get back to Naruto or Hinata as to what was happening. From there we merely had to get our targets into position and leave the rest to them." When laid out it seemed like a pretty simple plan to set the two love birds up. Sakura looked as if she was still considering all this carefully.

"So... it was just to get Naruto and Hinata to go on a date?" The pink haired girl pondered to herself.

"You mean you really were on a mission?" Moegi looked suddenly very ashamed for ever having doubted the boy.

"Told you Moegi, you really thought I was going to lie to you?" That seemed to make her feel worse. "I couldn't tell you all the details though, because Hanabi made me promise not to talk about it to anyone. So I wanted to keep faithful to both of you."

"I'm sorry Konohamaru... I didn't think... I guess I never even considered it..." She looked like she might cry causing Konohamaru to react.

"Well don't worry, I forgive you if that's the problem. Besides it's not often you get yourself all prettied up right? So I guess things worked out pretty good in the end?" His comment managed to stop any tears that might have been forthcoming.

"You really think I look pretty?" She smiled a bit hopeful.

"Well... yeah, I mean you know you always look pretty but I guess I like how you changed your hair tonight. It's different, I think it's nice." Moegi's tears were turning to a bright smile as she was hugging the stuffed toy in her arms tightly. Sakura let out a sigh.

"All this bother tonight over just trying to get two people to go on a date, what a troublesome situation." The words made her feel like her lazy friend Shikamaru and she immediately regretted saying them. Konohamaru looked to Neji again.

"So the mission's over, we're free to go?" Neji nodded in agreement.

"You've all done your part exactly as needed. I'll take care of the rest. Congratulations to both of you." Konohamaru smirked looking over his money.

"Well looks like I came out ahead tonight!" He snickered a bit to himself but his left arm was suddenly latched onto and held against a familiar chest again.

"We need to go get ice cream." Hanabi stated bluntly causing Konohamaru to blink in confusion.

"Wha-what... why?"

"You said you were going to get me ice cream, I'm your date, you need to get me some." Konohamaru was speechless at the words the young girl was saying to him.

"Wha-wait a minute... the mission is over already... so doesn't that mean that we're..."

"Are you saying that your ending our date because the mission ended?" Here eyes were almost piercing as they stared into his own. "Aren't you still obligated to take me out as long as they are too?" Konohamaru let out a sigh, suddenly he was in a lot deeper than he had intended.

"Okay okay, lets go get you some ice cream." He was about to depart when he felt another hug on his right arm.

"You can buy me some too, right Konohamaru?" Moegi was suddenly on him as well, earning a glare and a harder squeeze on Konohamaru's left arm. He felt the tension between the two girls and it seemed to sit exactly where he was standing. He looked at the fistful of money in his palm and realized it was departing.

"Yeah... yeah I can get everyone some ice cream." Best to get out of here before Sakura started asking for some too. Girls sure were trouble.

Neji smirked to himself watching the boy walk off with a girl on each arm. Konohamaru had a pained look on his face but he wondered if the boy knew how many men would be jealous to have such problems in their lives? With the younger teens departing Neji was left with Sakura who was looking exhausted from tonight. "You seem troubled?"

"What? No no I'm fine." She let out a bit of a sigh. "Lets just say I didn't see things ending exactly as they did."

"Oh, how did you see things turning out?" Sakura gave a bit of a shrug like she really didn't want to answer that. "Different for Moegi or for yourself?"

"Moegi? Oh I'm kind of glad how things ended. It looks like at least the three of them will be able to tolerate being around each other." She looked down the street where the trio was beginning to fade off into the crowd.

"True, a most unexpected outcome for Miss Hanabi. I'm happy that I was able to do something kind for both of them if not just for Hinata. With any luck she'll become more open with her friends now." Neji had noticed Sakura looking away when he mentioned Hinata. "Tell me Sakura, were you thinking that you'd be sweeping Naruto away with yourself tonight?" She looked up with startled green eyes and shushed him.

"Oh please, really? You think I was trying to get Naruto to go out with me?"

"Naruto Uzumaki has become a very impressive ninja as well as a stand up man. I wouldn't have allowed him to be with Hinata tonight if I did not think so." That was true. In the past Neji had been more than aggressive towards the rulers of his clan but since learning more and being accepted by his family their bonds had been closer than ever before. "There is nothing to be ashamed of for desiring to be with Naruto." Sakura brushed him off again and rolled her eyes.

"I know Naruto's become an amazing ninja, but to me he'll always be the perverted, idiotic, bumbling spiky haired kid I knew when we were graduates at the academy." She had a jesting but heartfelt smile about her remembering those days.

"There's nothing wrong for wanting to be with him for that either." He could see Sakura's hands clench together a little at the suggestion but she stuck to her statements. "Well unless you happen to be available, I could always try to get a hold of Lee for you to keep you company the rest of the night." She rolled her eyes again at the thought of calling out Neji's overly-enthusiastic team mate to come escort her through the festival. Lee had been chasing Sakura just as long as Naruto had since they were kids, with just as much luck.

"Thanks but I got a shift in the morning at the hospital. Sounds like you have a busy night too. Don't stay out too long Neji." She gave him a little wave which he nodded to with a smile. Clearly Miss Hinata had some competition, even if she didn't want to admit it to him. It would be interesting to see how things played out. For Hinata and for Hanabi.

So much effort they put forward just to be close to another. Hinata and Naruto spending an evening to learn of each other truly for the first time. Konohamaru discovering just what it was to like a person and want to be with them. And Sakura coming to terms with what it was she did want for herself. For all the trouble and difficulty it lead to for those few precious moments Neji wondered what was it that drove us so hard for this? What was it that made a person exert so much of themselves to just be acknowledged by another?

While Sakura was walking away she pulled the red chopsticks out of her hair to let it down, dropping one accidentally onto the path. As she leaned over to pick it up Neji gave into temptation for a moment, and doing something that was often considered taboo for his people he used the Byakugan's special ability to take a peek under Sakura's yukata to see just what she was hiding. Just underneath the robe he got a glimpse; green thong panties, worn in a very attractive way as she was bending over to retrieve her dropped accessory. When she stood up again he disengaged the Byakugan and felt a bit of a stirring inside himself from the view. "Well... I guess that answers the question of why we try so hard." He smiled to himself, tonight was a good night. "Maybe I can play a few of the festival games before I have to head back with Miss Hanabi. Wouldn't mind winning a few prizes myself at that target range."


End file.
